General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Amanda Knox should surrender to Italian authorities, The EVIDENCE Is Clear Enough- SHE DID IT. [View all]pnwmom
(110,293 posts)the grounds they had for overturning the "innocent" verdict?
There were three defendants. The first, Rudy Guede, the burglar whose DNA was found in and on the victim's body, and who admitted to holding her in his arms as she died (but claimed the intimacy was consensual) accepted the Italian version of a no-contest plea, which they call a "fast track trial." To take this plea, and to get his sentence cut by a third, he agreed to a set of stipulations put forth by the prosecution. These included stipulations saying that he was there with Amanda and Raffaele, but that HE wasn't the one wielding the knife -- the other two did the actual murder. Also, that Meredith told him she thought Amanda had stolen her rent money (even though Guede's DNA was the only DNA found on her purse.) So he got his sentence reduced by pointing to Amanda and Raffaele.
Then the high court ratified his trial results and at that point, all the stipulations were considered settled truth. The crazy part is that the full trials Amanda and Raffaele were still wending their way through the system -- and the high court directed the second appeals court to use these unanswered stipulations against Amanda and Raffaele. All those stipulations carried the weight of truth in Amanda and Raffaele's trial, and their attorneys weren't even allowed to question Guede at their trial.
Does this sound like justice to you? Or anything that could happen in a US court?
In case you don't realize it, Raffaele had never even met Guede. Guede was a pal of the murder victim's boyfriend, who lived in the apartment downstairs, so Amanda had seen him at parties, but she had no relationship with him either. But the prosecution's final theory at the latest trial was that Guede pooped in a third roommates' toilet without flushing. And that Meredith got so angry with Amanda about Guede's poop that Amanda and Raffaele and Guede rose up and killed her.